Two LulzSec Hackers Plead Guilty in Britain

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Two LulzSec Hackers Plead Guilty in Britain



Guilty plea: British man Ryan Cleary has admitted to attacking government and corporate websites as part of the Lulz Security hacking group. Picture: AFP

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/world/lulzsec-hackers-admit-their-guilt/story-fn6sb9br-1226408491508#ixzz1yrlMYzO4


By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 25, 2012

LONDON (AP) — Two British hackers linked to the notorious Lulz Security group pleaded guilty on Monday to several computer crimes, the latest blow against online criminals whose exploits have grabbed headlines and embarrassed governments around the world.

The hackers, Ryan Cleary, 20, and Jake Davis, 19, pleaded guilty to conspiring with other members of LulzSec to attack government, media and law enforcement Web sites last year, according to Gryff Waldron, an official at Southwark Crown Court in London.

LulzSec, an offshoot of the loose-knit hacker movement known as Anonymous, has claimed responsibility for assaults on sites run by the Central Intelligence Agency and the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States, and the media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s News International. Other targets included Nintendo, Sony, the National Health Service in Britain and the Arizona state police.

Mr. Waldron said two other defendants — Ryan Ackroyd, 25, and an unnamed 17-year-old — had pleaded not guilty to the same charges and would face trial in April 2013.

All four defendants have denied charges of encouraging or assisting others to commit computer offenses and fraud. Mr. Waldron said British prosecutors were still weighing whether to take Mr. Cleary and Mr. Davis to court on the remaining charges.

LulzSec, whose name draws on Internet slang for “laugh out loud,” shot to prominence in mid-2011 with an eye-catching attack on PBS, whose Web site it defaced with an article claiming that the late rapper Tupac Shakur had been found alive in New Zealand.

It was an opening shot in what became several months of data theft, online vandalism and denial-of-service attacks, which try to swamp Web sites with excess traffic.

The hackers repeatedly humbled law enforcement — stealing data from InfraGard, a partner organization of the F.B.I.; briefly jamming the Web site of the Serious Organized Crime Agency of Britain; and publishing a large cache of e-mails from the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

The spree focused attention on Anonymous, a loose-knit collection of activists — many of whom have taken on governments, officials or corporations over a variety of grievances.

Members of LulzSec and its reputed leader, known as Sabu, were some of the best known in the movement. But in March, officials in the United States unmasked Sabu as an F.B.I. informant named Hector Xavier Monsegur, and officials on both sides of the Atlantic arrested roughly half a dozen people who were suspected of collaborating.

Source : http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/26/technology/two-lulzsec-hackers-plead-guilty-in-britain.html